Monday, February 6, 2012

THE STORY OF A WONDERFUL PLANKED SALMON DINNER

Feb 04 - This was not just a Planked Salmon Dinner - it's a whole story!!

It started a few weeks ago when Gloria and Hayden were telling us about a Cedar Planked Atlantic Salmon they get from the grocery stores back home in Michigan. The Salmon comes frozen on a cedar plank, delicately seasoned, and packaged ready to grill. It sounded wonderful.

A few days later Gloria stopped by our rig and surprise!! She gave us a package of the frozen Salmon! Just thaw and grill!

A couple of days later we parted company but would all return to TT Palm Springs in a couple of weeks. I decided to save our Salmon so we could get together with Hayden and Gloria for Salmon dinner. They could show us how to prepare! We settled on Saturday afternoon at 4 PM!

It could not have been a more perfect choice! As we left our rig to go to their camp site, I glanced up and saw two hot air balloons lined up as if they were coming down our road! Definitely a good Omen!!

We took our hosts a special bottle of wine!

Special because is was Hayden wine!! ($1.98 at Stater Bros.)!!

Gloria and I prepared the defrosted Salmon for grilling!

Gloria pointed out that she always removes the skin from the bottom side. She said it burns during grilling and she does not care for that taste. I noticed that there were still scales on the skin side. Would not want to eat them!!

The planked Salmon is placed on the grill which has been preheated by Hayden and Ken to exactly 425 degrees.

The grill cover was closed. Hayden was very precise!! The Salmon was to grill for exactly 14-17 minutes. Smell that heavenly Cedar Applewood smoke!!

After exactly 14-17 minutes, it was time to remove the Salmon from the grill!

Note the charred Cedar Plank! Also notice that the Salmon had been sliced down the middle before grilling; one-half for each person.

Dinner was delicious! The Cedar Planked Applewood with Orange and Ginger Atlantic Salmon was Divine!!

After dinner, we sat around their fire pot campfire and enjoyed dessert of cookies, chocolates, and fresh strawberries. An almost full moon overhead made the evening perfect!!!

Later, Hayden took us on a flight around Palm Springs on his X-Plane!! We departed in the evening from nearby Bermuda Dunes Airport! It was fascinating to watch Hayden work with levers, buttons, and yoke as we lifted off. The problem was, we were "flying" in real time and it was dark! We could not see the terrain!

So Hayden changed the time to daytime. Now, we could see the desert, mountains, and the Palm Springs Airport as we came in for a landing! X-Plane is a really neat computer program!!

Thank you friends for a wonderful evening! You certainly do know how to entertain!! And now we know EXACTLY how to prepare Cedar Planked Salmon!!